


Je T'aime

by cyandlne



Category: Tales of Graces
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 21:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4035280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyandlne/pseuds/cyandlne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Those who smile the brightest, are the most depressed at heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Je T'aime

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, I'm sure this really OOC, but I wanted to be sad, ok?  
> Also, I tried my best with doing the French. It's Google Translate, so who really knows, but if it's inaccurate, feel free to let me know.  
> *There is death. No one dies during, but there are dead people. Please, don't read if you can't handle it.

Everyone had a serious side. That was common knowledge.  
To her friends, however, Pascal did not.  
No matter the situation, she always managed to make the party laugh or smile. Anything somber or sad was quickly brightened by a joke or even a smile.  
Except, there remained a small factor.  
Pascal did have a serious side.  
It was a a strange occurrence, having that serious side appear out of almost nowhere.  
As the seven of them advanced through Fendel, they exchanged some playful banter, little conversations. Pascal stood in the front of them all, leading the cheer.  
With a swift motion, her feet planted into the ground. Her body went stiff, and her eyes followed up to the top of a small gray tower in front of them.  
"Pascal?" Cheria asked. She wondered what had gotten into Pascal. Nothing would usually cause her to stop like that.  
Pascal remained quiet. Suddenly, her leg flared up, and she grabbed her shoe. She tossed it to the side. She then did the same with the other foot.  
"Pascal, it's freezing! Your toes will fall off! Put them-" Hubert began to inch forward. He was abruptly stopped by Pascal's arm.  
"This is a sacred ground. Everyone, you must either leave this general area or remove your shoes. It's disrespectful otherwise."  
For a while, no one said anything. All were taken aback by the sudden change in attitude. Sophie emerged from the group, removed her boots, and stood next to Pascal. The rest moved back.  
"What is it?" They heard Sophie ask.  
"I'm curious as well," Richard said. He turned to Hubert. "Have you any idea?"  
Hubert shook his head, disappointed in himself that this was something he had no idea about.  
"Whatever it is, I hope she brightens up soon. It's so sad without her lively attitude." Asbel admitted.  
"Why don't you go up and read it, Soph?" Pascal said, loudly enough for everyone to hear, but still pretty quietly. Her lips were pressed into a forced smile.  
Sophie slowly moved toward the pillar, and began to read aloud.  
"An souvenir deh sex...I can't read it."  
"En souvenir de ceux qui ont perdu sur Fodra." Pascal said quickly, suddenly beside Sophie. "It's in French, the official language of the Amarcians. It means, In remembrance of those lost on Fodra."  
"Those lost on Fodra? You don't mean..." Malik interrupted.  
"Not really. We don't have anything for the original scientists that were there when the core shut down. Maybe in the Archive, but, no memorials. This was for a group of scientists, who, fairly recently, traveled to Fodra in search of any means of survival of the individuals who lost their lives. They didn't take the original shuttle; they were in something built specifically for this mission."  
"However, very similar to our experience, it crashed because of the sudden gravitational pull toward Fodra. It didn't seem like a problem at the time, considering they had packed plenty and expected to find food and water there. It was unknown at the time that the cause of death of the original crew was because Fodra became a desolate wasteland. Without any outside resources, supplies were finished quickly. And because they had no means of getting back, they...didn't survive."  
Everyone went silent.  
"Pascal?"  
"Yeah, Sophie?"  
"I want you to read the names, please."  
"Wha- how come?"  
"We should honor them."  
Pascal smiled genuinely.  
"Monsieur Cecil, Madame Addie, Monsieur Acel, Mademoiselle Jacalyn," Hubert found a certain pleasure in hearing her new voice. When she spoke the language of her homeland, she sounded more beautiful, more graceful, than ever before. She ran down a few more names, then stopped.  
"Was that it? It didn't seem long enough..." Cheria asked, not really sure of why she had stopped.  
Pascal reached a single hand out to the pillar and felt it's cold silver on her hands. She shivered.  
"Mademoiselle Celeste. Monsieur Leo."  
She fell to the ground in a bow.  
"Maman," She whispered softly. "Peré..." Tears fell gently down her face and onto the snow.  
"Pascal! Are you alright?" Hubert asked, rushing to her side and kneeling down next to her in the snow.  
"Your," she sniffled. "Your shoes..."  
Hubert stepped back.  
She finally stood, and began to speak in the language she knew best.  
"Maman, Papa, tu me manques tellement. Fourier trop. Mais je pense que vous seriez fier de nous. Nous aidons les gens de Fendel, tout comme vous dit que nous ferions. De plus, je rencontré un garçon. Son nom est Hubert. Il est intelligent, et mignon. Si vous pouviez me voir maintenant, que diriez-vous? Seriez-vous fier? J'espère bien. Soyez fiers de Fourier trop. Elle fait de son mieux, même si cela ne fonctionne pas toujours."  
Pascal took one last glance at the party, smiled, and turned back.  
"Je t'aime."  
She stood and bowed once again.  
"What was that?" Malik asked, curious to know what Pascal had said to the pillar.  
Pascal blushed a little, then smiled. "It's, um, an old French prayer," She admitted. "Designed to honor the sacrifice of our community."  
Suddenly, she heard a soft sound of something hitting the snow. Asbel walked toward her without his shoes and kneeled next to her.  
"What are you doing, Asbel?"  
"Honoring them. We wouldn't have done all that we did without their sacrifice."  
Soon, Richard, Cheria and Malik all were kneeling beside her as well. When they all left, Hubert removed his boots and walked over to Pascal.  
The two sat on the ground together. Hubert put one arm around her and pulled her close.  
"I understood a little bit of what you said," He finally said to her. Her face went a little red.  
"You d-did? How?"  
"I was forced to study many languages during my education. French was one of them. But because it was considered a dead language, as all Amarcians were thought to be dead, we didn't do much with it."  
"So, what'd you hear?"  
"Well, for one thing, Celeste and Leo were your parents. You also mentioned my name. And at the very end, you told them you loved them."  
"Guess the secret's out, huh."  
"Secret?"  
"Well, I mean, I didn't want us to be a party of parent related sob stories. Let's face it, your and Asbel's dad is gone, Cheria was an orphan from the start, Richard's dad was killed by his own brother, Sophie doesn't have parents, and who even knows about Malik. So I figured I wouldn't tell you about my sad parent story."  
"Tell me."  
"Huh?"  
"I want to know everything."  
They left us when I was 5, and Fourier was 6." They assured us that they were coming back, and left Gramps to babysit. Slowly, we lost contact. I never saw them after that. It was hard to process exactly what had happened, but I knew that they weren't coming back."  
"It didn't really bother me much at the time, but it started to really bug me when Fourier was upset. She was my whole life after they left. The worst was that she would apologize over and over. 'I'm sorry Pascal,' she would say. 'I'm sorry I'm not strong enough.'"  
"That was when I really got...well, I guess mad? I wanted them to come back, to make Fourier happy. To lessen the burden on gramps. Deep down, I knew they weren't coming back, and I knew they would've if they could've, but it still remained that they weren't back. It killed me to see Fourier like that. Soon after, this memorial was built, and that was when it finally clicked."  
"You're so strong."  
"Huh?"  
"If that had happened to my parents, I don't know what I'd do. I'd break down in tears and anger, yelling and screaming and crying. And you were strong for Fourier. You may not have considered it at the time, but by remaining stoic, it helped her to understand that she didn't have to worry about you."  
"....Thanks, Hubert."  
"What were they like?"  
"Oh, only some of the best parents ever! Mom was always smiling, but she was gentle and kind and loving and accepting. Dad was little on the more stoic side, but he loved us just the same. They would always make everything pleasant. That's why I smile when I think about them. Not cry. Because I think, that nothing would hurt them more than to see my cry."  
Hubert tightened his grip on Pascal's shoulder and pulled her a little closer.  
"I'm sure they're watching you."  
...  
"Yeah, I bet."


End file.
